Gaza

As Outrage Over Gaza Grows, Biden Hides From Protests Amid High-Stakes Election

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Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Members of the activist group Jewish Voice for Peace join others in protesting President Joe Biden’s visit to New York due to his continued support for Israel on February 7, 2024.  (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

“A Democratic campaign that is scared of college campuses is not a campaign that can win given today’s coalitions,” said one journalist.

Public opposition to U.S. President Joe Biden’s support for Israel pushed more than 100,000 primary voters in the key state of Michigan this week to vote “uncommitted” instead of backing him, but while the Biden campaign brushed the protest votes off with promises to “listen to what folks’ concerns are,” the president is reportedly intent on avoiding contact with pro-Palestinian constituents as much as possible.

As NBC News reported Friday, Biden’s campaign is considering hiring a private firm to vet attendees of a major upcoming fundraiser in New York in order to “weed out potential protesters.”

The fundraiser is one of several campaign events that the Biden team has planned with a new level of secrecy following protests that disrupted speeches he gave earlier this year.

According to NBC, the event will likely be held at Radio City Music Hall, but the campaign hasn’t confirmed the location and has only publicized the date—March 28.

The campaign also kept the location of Biden’s recent event in Culver City, California under wraps beforehand, and Biden opted to announced a $1.2 billion student loan forgiveness program in front of a small group at a public library there instead of speaking about the issue at a college campus.

Campuses are among the places that have become hotbeds of pro-Palestinian activism in recent months, but Intercept journalist Ryan Grim said that avoiding the youngest voters—who helped secure Biden’s victory in 2020—is no way for the president to win in November.

“To avoid protests against Biden’s support for Israel’s carnage in Gaza, the Biden campaign is among other things avoiding college campuses. Yes, you read that right: HE’S AVOIDING YOUNG PEOPLE. He is literally hiding from his base,” said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

The campaign told NBC News that “larger-scale events” are planned in the coming weeks, “including on college campuses,” but critics on social media said the report raises larger concerns about the president’s ability to gather the support he needs as the U.S. continues to shield Israel from accountability for its indiscriminate killing of more than 30,000 people in Gaza in less than five months.

“Having a foreign policy so unpopular that you must avoid large crowds is definitely totally fine and not a problem for a presidential candidate,” Beth Miller, political director for Jewish Voice for Peace, said sarcastically.

While Biden has faced fewer protests at events in the past five weeks, since the campaign implemented the new strategy after demonstrators disrupted a speech he gave on abortion rights in Virginia several times, one ally of the president told NBC that the secrecy and smaller events are a risk he is taking.

“The downside is that means he doesn’t reach as many voters,” the person told NBC. “The point is to reach as many voters as you can, and those small events don’t.”

The campaign’s strategy is the latest sign that Biden’s “Israel stubbornness continues to trump even his seeming top goal: reelection,” said HuffPost senior diplomatic correspondent Akbar Shahid Ahmed.

The report came a day after journalist Mehdi Hasan appeared on CNN and expressed shock that Biden has continued to support Israel despite mounting evidence not only that the country is targeting civilians instead of Hamas, but also that the issue is increasingly a political liability for him, with more than three-quarters of Democrats calling for a permanent cease-fire.

“Joe Biden has rightly said for the last few years that [former President] Donald Trump poses an existential threat to our democracy,” said Hasan. “The idea that he would risk not only his own presidency, but the future of American democracy for the sake of [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and [National Security Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir and [Finance Minister] Bezalel Smotrich and the rest of the fascists in Israel is bizarre and inexplicable to me.”

Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

dizzy: Suggest that it is wise to have contingencies in place for neither Trump nor Biden being presidential candidates.

Continue ReadingAs Outrage Over Gaza Grows, Biden Hides From Protests Amid High-Stakes Election

Israel has not yet provided evidence to back Hamas 7 October attack claims against UNRWA, UN says

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/01/unrwa-funding-pause-employees-october-7-hamas-attack-claims-no-evidence-un

Palestinian people queue for food distributed by a charity in Deir al Balah, central Gaza. Allegations against 12 employees led major donors to suspend funding to UNRWA. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Allegations against 12 employees led major donors to suspend funding to UN Palestinian agency despite hunger crisis in Gaza

A month after Israeli allegations that a dozen United Nations staff were involved in the 7 October Hamas attack, UN investigators have yet to receive any evidence from Israel to support the claims though they expect some material to be forthcoming “shortly”.

The allegations against the 12 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) led 16 major donors to suspend contributions totalling $450m at a time when more than two million Gazans are facing famine. UNRWA says it is approaching “breaking point” and only has sufficient funds to continue functioning for the next month at most.

The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) launched an investigation on 29 January in the wake of the Israeli allegations initially presented to UNRWA in January, and delivered an update on its work to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Wednesday.

Diplomats who saw the OIOS preliminary report said it contained no new evidence from Israel since the initial presentation of the claims in January – which were not backed by any proof. In summarising the findings, the UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, confirmed that the investigation had yet to receive corroborating material from Israel.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/01/unrwa-funding-pause-employees-october-7-hamas-attack-claims-no-evidence-un

Continue ReadingIsrael has not yet provided evidence to back Hamas 7 October attack claims against UNRWA, UN says

Gaza Death Toll Passes 30,000 as IDF Massacres Crowd of Starving Civilians

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Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Injured Palestinians receive medical treatment in al-Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid trucks at al-Rashid Street in Gaza City, Gaza on February 29, 2024. (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Israel deliberately targeting civilians after starving them is a gross violation of international humanitarian laws and our humanity,” said Oxfam. “The risk of genocide is real.”

Israeli forces on Thursday opened fire on a crowd of desperate and starving Gazans waiting for food aid in the enclave’s north, which Israel’s military has cut off from humanitarian assistance almost entirely for months.

The attack reportedly killed more than 100 Palestinians and wounded over 700, further straining Gaza City hospitals that are barely functioning after Israel’s monthlong bombing campaign and blockade, which has restricted the flow of fuel, medicine, and other necessities.

The massacre helped push the death toll from Israel’s nearly five-month war on Gaza above 30,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

“We are devastated by the 30,000 killed—and this is not just a number,” Melanie Ward, CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said in a statement. “Every single life taken was a person with dreams and hopes for the future, left loved ones behind with no time to mourn their death. One in every 23 people has been killed or injured in Gaza. Everyone has been tragically affected in so many ways, including our own dear staff; their lives will never be the same again.”

One eyewitness who was wounded by Israeli fire in Gaza City on Thursday told The Associated Press that he and others went to Gaza City’s al-Rashid Street after hearing there would be a food delivery. The man, identified as Kamel Abu Nahel, told the outlet that “we’ve been eating animal feed for two months.”

“He said Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd, causing it to scatter, with some people hiding under cars,” AP reported. “After the shooting stopped, they went back to the trucks, and the soldiers opened fire again. He was shot in the leg and fell over, and then a truck ran over his leg as it sped off, he said.”

Medics who arrived on the scene described terrible carnage, with hundreds of people lying on the ground dead or wounded. Donkey carts were used to carry some of the wounded off to hospitals, as there weren’t enough ambulances available.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Reuters in response to reports of the Gaza City massacre that “there is no knowledge of Israeli shelling in the area.” One unnamed Israeli source told the news agency that IDF soldiers shot at “several people” in the crowd who allegedly “posed a threat.”

The IDF also claimed in a statement that “dozens were killed and injured from pushing, trampling, and being run over by the trucks.”

B’tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said in response that “whether they were shot or trampled to death, intentionally opening fire at civilians is a severe violation of international law and constitutes a war crime. This is especially grave given a crowd of thousands begging for aid.

The humanitarian group Oxfam International said it was “appalled” by Israeli attacks on people waiting for aid, which has become almost impossible to deliver across much of the Gaza Strip amid relentless Israeli bombing and targeting of aid workers.

“Israel deliberately targeting civilians after starving them is a gross violation of international humanitarian laws and our humanity,” Oxfam added. “The risk of genocide is real.”

Malnutrition and infectious diseases are spreading rapidly across Gaza as Israel continues to impede aid shipments, blatantly violating the International Court of Justice’s binding interim order. Save the Children said last week that families across Gaza have been forced to “forage for scraps of food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive.”

“All 1.1 million children in Gaza are now facing death by starvation and disease as aid delivery is impossible to carry out safely,” said the humanitarian group.

Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said in a speech Thursday that “there appear to be no bounds to—no words to capture—the horrors that are unfolding before our eyes in Gaza.”

“Since early October, over 100,000 people have been killed or wounded. Let me repeat that: about one in every 20 children, women, and men, are now dead or wounded,” said Türk. “At least 17,000 children are orphaned or separated from their families, while many more will carry the scars of physical and emotional trauma life-long.”

“This is carnage,” he added.

Original article by JAKE JOHNSON republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingGaza Death Toll Passes 30,000 as IDF Massacres Crowd of Starving Civilians

Morning Star: It’s Rishi Sunak & Co not ‘the mob’ that are the real threat to our democracy

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-sunak-threat-democracy

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We have been told that all marchers are Islamists or “extremists” and present Home Secretary James Cleverley has demanded that the organisers call them off since they have “made their point.”

However, the government has not yet got that point. It continues to thwart efforts to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

And the propaganda overlooks the fact that the repeated huge demonstrations have been almost entirely peaceful. Such few arrests as there have been have been mainly about the police stopping the display of what they regard as unacceptable slogans or images.

It is clear that the Establishment is rattled by the intensity of opposition to its pro-Israel policy and by the fact that the cosy Commons consensus is rejected by the country outside, which overwhelmingly wants a ceasefire.

And masses repeatedly mobilised on the streets always rattle the state, more or less regardless of the issue. These protests are still more menacing to the elite because they challenge the prerogatives of imperialism.

It is no surprise therefore that state prosecutor Starmer’s Labour has hardly raised a peep of protest.

But the solidarity protests are the voice of democracy. The bipartisan move against them is a threat to all our freedoms. The left must stand against the hysteria and assert our democratic right to hold politicians to account.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-sunak-threat-democracy

Well said Morning Star

Continue ReadingMorning Star: It’s Rishi Sunak & Co not ‘the mob’ that are the real threat to our democracy